Israel says will evacuate Palestinians from northern West Bank, akin to measures taken in Gaza

By Abdelraouf Arnaout

JERUSALEM (AA) — Israel's foreign minister said Wednesday that the country's army will order Palestinians to evacuate parts of the northern occupied West Bank amid an ongoing major military incursion in the area.

The Israeli army had earlier launched raids in the northern West Bank, including in the cities of Jenin, Tulkarem and Tubas, killing 11 Palestinians so far.

In a statement on X, Israel Katz said the country's army was working in Jenin and Tulkarem to thwart what he called "terrorist infrastructure against Israel in the West Bank."

He added that the army's operation includes "temporary evacuation of Palestinian residents" in areas in the northern West Bank in measures similar to those that the Israeli army has taken in the Gaza Strip.

In the course of the Israeli army's devastating onslaught against the Gaza Strip, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been displaced from their homes and areas under evacuation orders by the Israeli army.

Over the past few years, Israeli forces have conducted regular raids in the West Bank that have escalated since the war on Gaza began last October, killing over 40,400 Palestinians so far.

Palestinians in the West Bank have also been violently attacked by illegal Israeli settlers.

The new deaths bring toll in the West Bank since Oct. 7 to at least 662 Palestinians and nearly 5,400 others injured by Israeli army fire, according to the Health Ministry.

In a landmark opinion on July 19, the International Court of Justice declared Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian land unlawful and demanded the evacuation of all existing settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar